Heretofore, in this field, a powering antenna has often been provided with the interrogator in addition to the communicating antenna. This powering antenna is provided for the powering of a transponder not having its own internal power supply. The powering antenna may be a high Q-factor antenna to effect maximum power transfer to the transponder. Because of the flexibility afforded by having a spearate power antenna in the interrogator which may be optimized for power transfer to the transponder, the transponder antenna may be optimized for communicating with the interrogator's communicating antenna. An example of this type of system is given in U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,444 by Uebel and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,471 by Tyburski et al. In such systems the RF coupling can be separately designed for the power transfer link and the communications link. The disadvantage in such a system is the inherently greater cost and size involved in a transponder having two separate circuits for powering and communicating. Another known technique allowing for somewhat optimized powering and communication links is to provide separate transmit and receive antennas in the transponder. In this way the downlink (i.e., the communication link from the interrogator to the transponder) can be designed for efficient power transfer. Because the transponder is desirably compact and power-efficient, the uplink (i.e., the communication link from the transponder to the interrogator) can be optimized to the transponder's transmit antenna. Communication can still be effectively carried out over the downlink because of the lesser need for power and cost efficiency in the interrogator transmitter design. An example of this type of system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,148 by Cardullo et al. As before, the disadvantage in such a system is the inherently greater cost and size involved in a transponder having two separate circuits, this time for receiving and transmitting.
Yet another known technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,774 by Schuermann, et al. In this technique, communication and power transfer is preferably accomplished by a single resonant circuit in each of the interrogator and the transponder thereby minimizing cost, size and power efficiency. The resonant circuit in each of the interrogator and the transponder is used for both communication and power transfer in this prior art. For optimal power transfer the prior art device uses highly tuned, high Q-factor resonant circuits.
Generally in prior art circuits using highly tuned, high Q-factor resonant circuits for communication, the preferred modulation technique is 100% amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation or another modulation technique where the frequency is not modulated (e.g., PSK, QPSK). These modulation techniques allow the link to continue to operate within its tuned frequency. The modulation percentage in ASK refers to the percentage by which the amplitude of the carrier is reduced from its maximum. For example, On-Off Keying (OOK), also called 100% ASK, means that one logic level will be represented by maximum carrier while the other logic level will be represented by an absence of a carrier. Further illustrating, 50% ASK means that one logic level will be represented by maximum carrier while the other logic level will be represented by a carrier having an amplitude of 50% of maximum.
The reason that frequency shift keying (FSK) is difficult to use for communicating between two highly tuned, high Q-factor resonant circuits is that the power transfer between two high Q-factor resonant circuits drops off rapidly as the carrier frequency deviates from the tuned frequency. Inherently the carrier frequency within FSK modulation deviates from the tuned frequency. ASK modulation can be used with high Q-factor tuned circuits and where high data transmission speed is not the primary consideration. Within a high Q-factor circuit, however, the ringing of the resonant circuit takes a significant time period to subside, thereby limiting the data transfer rate. Ringing can be reduced by reducing the modulation percentage or reducing the Q-factor.